This invention relates to frozen dessert products such as ice cream, incorporating novel flavor strands or ribbons, of chocolate for example, and to the method of producing same.
In the production of an ice cream that is flavored with a solid chocolate or compound chocolate composition, it is currently the normal practice in the industry for a chocolate supplier to manufacture the chocolate or other flavoring material in his own plant. The finished pieces, in the shape in which they will be present in the ice cream, are then shipped to the ice cream plant and are there incorporated in the solid form into the ice cream. Chocolate chip ice cream is the best known variety of this type.
These pieces of chocolate or other flavoring material are usually formulated with hydrogenated fats with relatively high melting points so that they are solid at ambient temperatures and remain solid during shipping and storing. As a result, the pieces of chocolate become very hard when they are cooled in the ice cream to a freezer temperature of about minus 10.degree. C. When a chocolate chip ice cream is consumed, the ice cream melts in the mouth and is swallowed and many of the hard chocolate pieces are left in the mouth and must be chewed and swallowed separately. Because high melting point fats are used, the mouth-feel of the cold chocolate or compound chocolate is waxy and hard and the release of the flavor is retarded.
Because the solid pieces are introduced into the ice cream by means of a screw feeder which conveys the pieces into the stream of ice cream, it is also not possible to introduce shapes that are fragile, such as rods, ribbons or strands. These more fragile shapes would be broken up in the screw feeder.